I promised to spend the weekend with her, helping with the final polishing of her rewritten Mills & Boon novel, because she wasn’t quite sure if it was how they wanted it. She was also a bit worried about Tershie, because he was in Colombia on business, but he promised not to leave the hotel even for the airport without an armed guard, since Linny was frightened that he would get kidnapped, which apparently everybody is all the time over there, and he was dropping hints about bringing her Colombian emerald earrings.

Twenty-Eight

Pearls Among Women

NOVELTINA LITERARY AND CRITICAL AGENCY

Mudlark Cottage, The Harbour, Shrimphaven

Dear Pippa Potter-Rubrick,

Thank you for your letter, cheque and manuscript.

I too was fascinated by Pixies of Pilgarrow, and while I am not saying that it isn’t somewhat in the general style of Elizabeth Goudge, it does have a certain slightly evangelical Christian tone that I don’t remember her novels having.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this type of novel is sufficiently mainstream to sell to a publisher, who would not perceive it as having a wide enough market to make it worth their while. However, were you to self-publish your books, I could imagine them doing quite well in Christian bookshops all over the place, although you would, of course, have to spend time promoting them yourself.

Should you indeed decide to set up Potter-Rubrick Press, I can put you in touch with another author, Bob Woodelf, who is writing not dissimilar work and who has not, so far as I am aware, managed to sell his children’s novel yet. He does delightful, if uncommercial, illustrations, too.

I hope you find my critique helpful, though it is mostly confined to pointing out those places where charming whimsy tilts in the direction of twee, always a hard balance to maintain in a book of this kind. You also have a slight tendency to change from first person to third, sometimes in the same sentence, which can be disconcerting, and these I have also marked.

I wish you all the best with your inspiring work.

Yours sincerely,

Tina Devino

We actually had a fun weekend, sorting out the manuscript and shopping (even if Linny had a tendency to linger in babyGap), and chilling out with large quantities of fattening foods and a box of tissues in front of romantic DVDs.

Then on the Monday morning I woke up early with that feeling of anticipation I always used to get, knowing I would see Sergei soon …

Only, of course, I wasn’t.